Ten Floors
by bonvieuxtemps
Summary: A couple encounters that go beyond the usual "elevator etiquette". Emily/JJ femslash.
1. Prologue Chapter 1

Ten floors

Spoilers: None.

Pairing: Emily/JJ

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Criminal Minds or any of its contents.

Author's note: I blame my cousin for leaving me waiting for over 2 hours for another pair sandals since mine was s***.(I should blame my crappy sandals too then). I know i have some other stories to finish first, and I will hopefully, but this one wouldn't stop nagging me so i had to write. Thankfully it's a short one and thanks to my friend Lugh, who has co-written it with me and stops me from being lazy, it's mostly done. I'll try to post it all before the end of the month and the next chapter for Charity Work as well if anyone is still interested. I hope you all enjoy it.

Prologue

"Hold the door! Hold the door!" The blonde shouted as she ran for the elevator.

She was a mess trying to run balancing a mountain of files and her purse. That was the least of her worries though. On top of that, her phone was ringing and considering the previous five times it had rang that morning she was sure it was Gideon wondering about those files.

When the brunette agent, the only person inside the elevator, saw the blonde she was stunned. She knew she was forgetting something, but she couldn't move. She just stared at the woman, who looked more desperate by the second. That was until she saw her vision closing and she remembered to push the button to keep the door open. She pressed it frenetically, but it didn't work. The only thing she could do look at the blond apologetically as the door closed.

First Chapter

The second time it happened the brunette reacted immediately. She tapped the button quickly, but tried to seem less desperate when the other woman walked inside. The brunette spoke before the other woman had a chance to say anything.

"I'm so sorry for the other day" Emily apologized.

JJ frowned, trying to figure out why the woman was apologizing.

Realizing the other woman was confused, Emily continued, "Last week. The elevator"

"Right, right." The blond shook her head smiling "Happens all the time"

Emily felt like slapping herself when she saw they were already on the fifth floor, "God, I'm so sorry. What floor?"

The blond snapped her head to the panel, but sighed in relief when she saw that they were still in the sixth floor.

"Tenth floor, please" JJ said and the brunette pressed the respective button.

"I'm Jennifer Jareau" The blond extended her hand. The brunette looked at her curiously then smiled and shook her hand. "I meant, agent. Agent Jennifer Jareau."

"Nice meeting you, Jennifer." The brunette smiled knowingly at the younger woman. It takes time getting used to all the formalities. "Or should I call you Agent Jareau?"

The elevator made a sound and its door opened on the tenth floor. The blond walked out but left her arm keeping the door open. She thought of the same well-practiced way she always asked people to simply call her JJ, but the well-practiced part had already failed with the other woman, and something about the way she spoke her name…

"No, Jennifer is good." They both smiled as the door closed.


	2. 2º

Ten floors

Spoilers: None.

Pairing: Emily/JJ

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Criminal Minds or any of its contents.

Author's note: I know the chapters are quite short, but I'll try to post them regularly.

2º

Nothing seemed to work that morning for the press liaison. Her alarm clock had failed to awake her, she had burnt her breakfast and her car had just barely made it to the FBI's parking lot, so when she walked inside the elevator with her cellphone shutting down she barely acknowledged anyone else inside.

The blond shrieked in surprise when she heard someone ask, "What floor?"

She clutched her phone to her chest and turned to the smiling brunette. "You scared me."

"Sorry, Jennifer." The brunette seemed more amused than apologetic.

"It's ok… You never told me you name."

"I didn't?" Emily asked, but she knew she hadn't mentioned her name the other time they had met.

"I know it's been over a month, but I would have remembered." The press liaison said sincerely. She felt a bit embarrassed and turned her gaze from the other woman. "Oh, tenth floor"

The brunette chuckled, feeling more at ease with the other woman. She extended her hand and introduced herself, "I'm Agent Emily Prentiss, but please call me Emily"

"Will do, Emily. How have you been?" She was used to the elevator etiquette.

"Good, and you?"

"Great." The blond exclaimed a bit too cheerfully, Emily noticed. The doors opened at the tenth floor and JJ walked out. "It was nice seeing you again."

"You too. And Jennifer?" She called out just as the blond turned around.

"Yes?" The blond turned and looked at her expectantly.

Emily seemed to consider her words carefully, and with a knowing smile she said, "I hope you feel better soon"


	3. 3º

Ten floors

Spoilers: None.

Pairing: Emily/JJ

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Criminal Minds or any of its contents.

Author's note: So I tried to make it a bit longer, but the short time frame makes it a bit tough. This one is unbetaed too, so all mistakes are my own. Thank you guys for the reviews, they are very much appreciated :)

3º

Emily rubbed her eyes for the hundredth time. It was true she had made the effort to arrive early at the bureau, but started to worry if she hadn't exaggerated, because it was way too quiet for a Friday morning in the bureau and she was pretty certain the guy who held the entrance door open for her was the security guard she had said goodnight before leaving the previous night.

She had to call for the elevator with her left hand because the right one had to move to contain a particularly long yawn. She was glad it was only a floor away for she could really use one of those large cups of coffee. She groaned when she saw the numbers moving up instead of down, just what she needed, "Great".

She rested her head on the wall and closed her eyes; it wasn't like there was anyone else other than the two receptionists who way too focused on their computer screen to care about her taking a nap against the wall next to the elevator.

She could swear she had been dreaming when she was brought back to conscience by the sound of heels moving hastily across the entrance hall. At first, she thought it was probably one of the receptionists going to the bathroom or any of the few things that could drag them from those computers. Trying to contain yet another yawn she only opened one eye to see who it might be and was very surprised to see one Jennifer Jareau, with yet another tall pile of files, walking in her direction.

"Good Morning, Jennifer" The brunette's voice was still a bit husky from sleep.

It was only when she heard her name that the blond looked up and saw Emily waiting for the elevator. She smiled, pleasantly surprised to see the brunette. She was on her way to wish the brunette good morning when she was reminded why she had been so focused on the files in the first place. In a second a number of them were scattered all over the floor.

"Damn it" The blond cursed.

"It's ok, I'll get those" Emily quickly moved to the floor and started picking up the files, just as she did the elevator door opened and two people walked past them.

"I'll hold the door" The blond had her arm in the way of the lasers to hold the door opened.

"You better" The brunette joked, picking up the last pastes and pictures that were on the floor. "Because if I had to wait for that elevator another minute I'd just take a nap on the awful couch over there and previous experiences tell me that that thing was designed especially to avoid that"

JJ chuckled loudly at the brunette's grumpiness finding it surprisingly adorable. "Come on, Grumpy. I can't hold this all day".

"And to think one would be thankful" The dark-haired agent complained jokingly as she walked inside the elevator and pressed the buttons for her floor and the blonde's.

"Still tenth floor, right?" Emily asked, afraid she might have assumed wrong by pressing the tenth floor button.

"Right, thanks" JJ was caught by surprise by the fact that the other woman had remembered her floor number, after all it had been over a month since they had seen each other. "Of course I'm thankful. You're like my savior in desperate times of lateness"

"You're late?" The brunette questioned her, shocked. "And here I was congratulating myself for coming in early"

"Really?" JJ raised her eyebrow.

"Really" The brunette nodded.

"Then maybe I should arrive late more often" The blond smirked seeing that she had left the other agent speechless.

Emily was still moving her mouth without saying anything when the door opened on the tenth floor and the blond moved out smiling back at the brunette, "It was nice seeing you, Emily".


	4. 4º

Ten floors

Spoilers: None.

Pairing: Emily/JJ

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Criminal Minds or any of its contents.

Author's note: Sorry I took a bit longer this time, but all this end of term craziness takes nearly all my time. It's unbetaed because I'm going to be computerless for about a week and I didn't want to make you guys wait even longer. If you guys see any mistakes just let me know and I'll happily fix it. Thank you for all the reviews and I hope you enjoy this one as well. =D

4º

That was a particularly good morning for Emily Prentiss. She felt surprisingly great having just landed in D.C. after an extremely long flight, one she had mostly slept through. She was so used to flying that those plane seats that, for her, those seats were as good as her bed, especially when her mother sent her the first class tickets. If she was going to endure her mother's social gatherings god-knows-where she might as well make the most of it. Taking it all into consideration, no doubt the flight back was always the most enjoyable part of it.

She took the cab home and it didn't take longer than five minutes staring outside the windows to decide that going to the office a bit early wouldn't kill her. At least it had more chances of turning out for the best than hanging by her apartment for another hour doing nothing. So she took a bath and headed out.

She enjoyed the quiet, nearly traffic-less, drive to Quantico. She found a decent parking space just in front of the building, something that would be very appreciated later in the day. It was when she was about to get out of the car that she saw through the rearview mirror a car slowly passing by being driven by none other than the tenth floor blond agent who had her phone glued to her ear as she looked for a parking space. The brunette smiled to herself thinking that might just be her lucky that. If not, then she'd just make it be.

To say she stalled would be the understatement of year. She reduced the speed she walked to a nearly stopping pace, pretended to be profoundly interested in the entrance decoration, she stopped to search through her purse a number of times. She even had a deeply meaningful conversation with one of the receptionist about the weather that probably none of them would recall later, because one was paying half attention to her monitor and the other to the glass entrance doors.

She felt a bit stupid for acting like a school girl, but that didn't stop her from hastily saying goodbye to the receptionist and start walking 'calmly' towards the elevator when she saw that the blond was about to walk in. She expertly kept her pace and showed no indications of having seen JJ. Yet what she was most proud of was her surprised face when the blond cheerily greeted her, "Emily, Hi!"

"Good Morning, Jennifer" Emily greeted in response just as the elevator door opened the walked in, side by side.

"Wait, I'm not late today…am i?" JJ was genuinely worried and the brunette had to smile as the she quickly grabbed her phone to check what time it was.

"No, not at all. At least I don't think so. I'd be quite worried about this job of yours if you were"

The blond sighed in relief, "You say that because you haven't met Hotch, my unit chief".

"Agent Hotchner is you unit chief?" It didn't take long for the brunette to put the pieces together. Tenth floor, Agent Hotchner…that meant she was in the BAU. No wonder she was always carrying those mountains of files. "That explains a lot"

"Yeah, like my sudden dependence on coffee." JJ confirmed, raising the steaming cup of coffee in her hand to prove her point, "And this is considered nearly late in his crazy clock."

"Wow. That makes me a lot more grateful for my reasonable hours"

"Yet you're here early" The blond pointed out with a mischievous smirk, like she had been waiting to do so.

It took Emily everything to keep a straight face and not to blush. She couldn't possibly have known, right? That is what the brunette hoped, even though JJ's smirk said she might.

"Indeed. Trying to see if I can get on the chief's good graces" In that moment Emily wished she had paid more attention to her mother as a role model because even she couldn't believe her own lie. That early in the day her unit chief was probably still fighting off her alarm clock. Agent Hotchner wasn't exactly the standard for unit chiefs.

"Really?" JJ raised a questioning eyebrow, quite amused at how the brunette squirmed. It was so brief and subtle that she nearly missed.

"Really" Emily affirmed, nodding her head vehemently. However, the way the corners of her lips curved up told the blond another story. So JJ scoffed, watching the brunette's reaction out of the corner of her eye as she pretended to be watching focused on the floor numbers as they kept increasing.

Then Emily was sure that somehow the other agent knew she had been waiting for her, and she was surprised to find herself not embarrassed or even nervous. She found it a bit funny and, because of the way the blond was acting, encouraging.

She saw that they were about to arrive and the tenth floor and saw it as her chance. So she smiled brightly and said, "Well, certainly my early arrival has nothing to do with increasing my chances of encountering this agent I met a couple months back".

JJ chuckled throatily, pleased with the other woman's sincerity, and smiled back at her.

The blond hoped the brunette wouldn't ask how she had known though, because nearly tripping twice on the parking lot while running to the building had been embarrassing enough. She had seen the brunette walking to the building and cursed madly when she took longer than usual to find a place to park.

They were still smiling at each other when the elevator door opened on the tenth floor. The blond shook her head lightly to bring herself out of the daze she found herself in and said, "It's a shame then. I'm sure this certain agent would be very happy if you were to be trying to encounter them".

The blond walked out, but kept her free hand holding the door and continued, "Or should I say her?"

Emily pretended to think about it for a moment before saying, "Well, you could say 'me'".


End file.
